WEST CHESTER — Former Downingtown Magisterial District Judge Rita Jo Ann Arnold was sentenced to 16 to 32 months in prison for her improper handling of a criminal citation against her son and her later efforts to conceal those actions.

Senior Judge John L. Braxton of Philadelphia said Arnold’s manipulation of the criminal justice system and her attempt to pressure a court staff member to lie on her behalf warranted the harsh sentence.

“You violated an oath of office as a judge,” said Braxton, who was appointed to hear Arnold’s case after her attorney asked the judges on the county bench to recuse themselves. “You knew the responsibility before you. You chose not to tell the truth, knowing you had an obligation to tell the truth.”

Arnold, 57, of West Bradford, who had pleaded guilty to the charges against her in June, was led from the courtroom in the county Justice Center in handcuffs, after kissing her husband, Gary Arnold, goodbye. The sentence left her appearing stunned, and likewise left many of the supporters who had attended the proceeding in her defense in tears.

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Braxton sentenced Arnold to 12 to 24 months of incarceration on the charge of tampering with records, followed by a consecutive sentence of four to eight months in prison on the charge of obstruction of administration of law. Both are second-degree misdemeanors.

By law, the sentence must be served in a state prison; Arnold can have her sentence reduced slightly through a re-entry program run by the state Department of Corrections.

Arnold was taken by county sheriff deputies to Chester County Prison following her sentence, where she will be housed for her safety and with her fragile health — she is suffering from cancer — in mind. She could be transferred to the state correctional institution at Muncie within the month.

In a prepared statement to the court, Arnold begged Braxton to show her mercy, saying she had recently underwent a double mastectomy, and now had chest cancer that desperately needed chemotherapy treatment.

“I am truly sorry for the embarrassment I caused my family and the court system,” Arnold said before Braxton imposed his sentence. “”From the age of 18 … being a judge was my dream.”

Arnold said that as a judge in the court system since 1994, she had tried “to do some good for someone every day.”

“But now I am saddened that any of the good that I’ve done will be forgotten,” she read. “I have lost my career, my pension, my health insurance, my reputation, and my health.” She asked Braxton “for your compassion, and for God’s.”

But Braxton said he was “optimistic” that Arnold would recover, and, noting that he was “frustrated” by her conduct, lectured her on the important role that being a judge plays in the community.

“We owe a great deal to the people, because they submit themselves to the decisions that we make,” he said. “We have been given what can be considered a sacred responsibility, because we can affect the lives of other people, both now and in the future.”

Senior Deputy Attorney General Susan DiGiacomo, who prosecuted the case, declined comment after the sentencing. She had asked Braxton to impose a term of imprisonment, but did not suggest what the exact sentence might be.

“When a judge who takes an oath of office to uphold the law and dispense justice actually obstructs justice, there can be no greater offense,” DiGiacomo, who is a former county prosecutor, wrote in a pre-sentence memorandum. “Arnold’s continued actions in misleading the inquiry of the court and subsequent investigation showed no respect for the law and highlighted her thoughts of power in her own small kingdom.

“She knew the criminal justice system inside out,” DiGiacomo told Braxton in her statement in court. Her crime was not a single incident, but rather “a course of conduct. She thought it was OK as a judge to be untruthful.”

Defense attorney Heidi Eakin of Harrisburg, representing Arnold, had asked the judge to consider a sentence that would keep her in county prison or, in the alternative, on home confinement.

After the sentencing Eakin said Arnold would appeal Braxton’s decision on a long prison term. “We are very disappointed with the sentence,” she said.

The standard sentences for offenses such as what Arnold pleaded guilty to for someone with no prior criminal record, like Arnold, is listed by the state sentencing guidelines as a period of probation to one month in prison, with a term of four months in prison for an aggravated case. Braxton said he determined that Arnold warranted a sentence above even the aggravated guidelines because of the nature of the offense and the circumstances surrounding her behavior.

He paid particular attention to the allegation that Arnold attempted to get her longtime office manager to lie about the circumstances surrounding the citation against her son, and then to have the woman transferred out of the court system after the matter came to light and Arnold was suspended for one month by the state Court of Judicial Discipline.

“You led (the woman) to believe that you didn’t want (her) to act ethically,” he told Arnold, looking drawn and pale in a grey business pants suit. “That’s what I’m concerned about. She was being cast to the winds, and you were willing to do that to a person who was loyal to you.”

No other district court judge in county history has ever been sentenced to a term as long or as harsh as Arnold. In 1988, former District Justice Carl Henry was sentenced to 30 days to 12 months on charges of theft of money from his Parkesburg court. In 1991, his successor to that office, Ray Gentile, was given 18 months probation for obstruction of justice. (Coincidentally, DiGiacomo was a prosecutor on that case.)

The Arnold matter began in January 2010, when state police were called to her home in West Bradford because of a fight between her two adult sons. One, Forrest Solomon Jr., was issued a non-traffic citation for harassment.

According to an affidavit prepared by special agent Daniel Block of the state Attorney General’s Office, Arnold was concerned that the citation would have a negative bearing on an upcoming probation violation hearing that Solomon was facing. She first tried to get the citation withdrawn by state police then took action to have its docketing into the state’s criminal system delayed.

Block also found that Arnold lied about what happened to the citation when asked to provide a written explanation of its handling by President Judge James P. MacElree II. She said it had been lost in the confusion over her court closing in January and February. But court employees later told investigators she had ordered it be held until further notice, and other citations filed at the same time were docketed properly despite the court closing.

The charge of obstruction of law deals with Arnold’s alleged failure to have the citation docketed properly and her transfer of the case to another district judge without informing MacElree, as she was required to by county rules.

The tampering charge refers to her alleged concealment of the citation between January 2010 and April 5, 2010, when it was eventually docketed, and by false information she allegedly entered into the court computer system concerning Solomon’s race and gender.

At the sentencing hearing, Arnold was supported by three witnesses who spoke about her kindness, her steadfast friendship, and her motherly instincts.

“She has a tremendous reputation and standing in the community,” attorney Melissa McCafferty told Braxton. “And this incident wasn’t motivated by greed, ego or malice.”

Another witness, Rose Nixon Middleton, said she had known Arnold as a friend and neighbor for more than a decade. “She is sterling, absolutely sterling,” Middleton declared.

Finally, a childhood friend, Robin Whiteman, told the judge that the case had had a lasting impact on Arnold.

“She has really paid a price, an awfully large price, for this conduct,” Whitman sad.

But Braxton told all three women that as good a person as Arnold may have been when it came to her life outside the court, what she did behind closed doors in her judicial capacity when it came to the citation and its aftermath was reason enough for a stiff sentence.

“Some of us on the inside of the justice system have influence beyond what others have,” he said, and must be careful about how that power is used. “That is what I am concerned about: the image of justice and what justice is in this county.”